16 Learning Hacks to Boost Your Academic Performance and Understanding of Any Subject

Learning is an essential aspect of personal development. It is the core of education and skill acquisition. While there are several channels of learning, not everyone has the capacity to understand what they have learned that easily. Failure to have good understanding despite attending lectures, taking classes, reading and even engaging in personal studies can result from several factors including one's intelligence quotient (IQ), the learning environment, the learning process itself and other factors which we may not list here.

What you need to understand is that no one is absolutely blank, therefore, applying certain hacks and following some learning tips can improve your learning process and boost your understanding of any subject of interest. Even when you have a low IQ, if you have a good tutor and commit to applying the tips provided in this hack, you can still perform greatly academically and in other areas of your learning.

We are set to offer you more resources that can help you, your child or friends to improve understanding of their subjects as well as having good academic results.

Tips to Improve Understanding and Academic Performance

1. Do not miss classes:

You can skip important points while reading, even places you have read may not always be comprehensible. It is in classes that you can easily ask questions and have the simplest explanation of those topics you did not understand while learning alone. So when you miss a class, you can miss out on a point that you may never come across again.

In the case of examination, most teachers tend to set examinations on the points they made in class over what you would read from books. Therefore, if you want to learn better and perform excellently in your academics, ensure you attend your classes and lectures.

2. Ask Disturbing Questions to Clear Doubts:

Asking questions clears doubts about the aspect of the lesson that you were unable to understand. What this does is unveil your sense of understanding of the topic and give more insight into what the subject is all about.

Unanswered questions can hinder understanding and distract the listening process. So while you're in class or studying alone, ask questions where you have doubts and ensure you find answers at all costs. An answer to an intriguing question will improve your learning and make you perform better academically and during examinations.

3. Become a book addict through reading:

No matter the number of lessons you receive, without reading more on the topic, it can be hard to have a clear understanding. Reading improves your brain performance and exposes you to all the information you would not access easily through any other means. It increases your vocabulary and makes it easy to have the full information about your subject of learning.

Besides being a major source of information, reading helps you to remember what you were taught so easily thereby making it an effective method for improving learning and boosting academic performance.

Note that only study-reading is good for academic performance, not just scanning through book pages. And while reading, bear in mind that some of the points are more vital than others. You are to take note of those vital points. This will enable you to take key notes and have a better understanding.

4. Find a special place for personal study:

Find a quiet place where you can focus on studying alone without distractions. Not every place is ideal for studying but a quiet and peaceful place that can help absorb information quickly is one of the hacks.

Having alone time to review in depth what has been learned in previous learning materials or courses is one of the best strategies and learning hacks for students and anyone who needs the secrets to effective learning.

5. Create a lesson plan or schedule for yourself:

Sometimes it can be difficult for you to have enough time for your studies due to other important activities. If this is your challenge, you must make a lesson plan to meet your learning goal. Do this by creating a timetable for any topic you want to cover for a while and include extra activities amidst your classes to create a balance.

When planning a lesson, do some tests on yourself to determine the best time your brain can absorb information easily and make a list of those times for your reading or personal study. This will boost your mental performance and your intellect thereby promoting your academic accomplishment. Some people enjoy reading and studying at evening before sleep, some wake up at midnight, while others read from 4 am. Just test yourself to know what time works better on you and schedule accordingly.

6. Get ahead of the curriculum and scheme:

Most students take it as a culture to follow exactly what the teacher, lecturer, or tutor teaches without making personal efforts to go ahead. In this case, once there is a vacation, they close their books and wait for the next academic session without knowing what topics or courses they are going to encounter next. Meanwhile, students who want to succeed must go ahead of others to have a clue about what next topic is coming their way.

If you know what your academic curriculum looks like and read ahead, it will be much easier to understand the lesson. This is because something you have read before, even without good understanding, will no longer sound strange when the teacher discusses, hence, will make it easier for you to perform well on that topic.

7. Introducing new learning tricks for yourself:

There are popular learning techniques that can help your studies. Such techniques include the use of summaries, reading techniques, and a lot more. You can apply them by writing summaries of lessons you have taken and books you have read.

Take down the main points of the topic in your own words rather than copying the whole notes or skimming without note-taking. You can as well introduce a new method for yourself and stick to it inasmuch as it makes you understand better. But don't always forget to get down to taking notes and highlighting important points as you keep learning. Any study trick that works for you, is a thumb-up for you to abide by.

8. Show other people what you know:

One of the best way to understand a subject is to share what you know with other people. Communication can boost our cognitive faculty and make us teach ourselves better in the process. When you know that you are going to teach others, there will be the urge to learn deeper.

In addition, while teaching, there is bound to be questions arising, either from your audience or from a point you were unable to explain properly. When this happens, you will be able to know the measure to which you have gone on that subject thereby boosting your understanding of the depth you still have to go to get it right.

9. Take short breaks between classes:

Taking short breaks during classes enhances effective learning by boosting your focus and concentration efficiency. You can set the timing for your breaks or follow the already Pomodoro method. This method is popular in time management strategies where activities are divided into sections or intervals with breaks in-between each session. Such breaks may be 20-30 or more.

The essence of the short intervals between the work-time is to reduce stress and offer your brain time to relax. This also can be applied to your studies or learning schedule to promote study-life balance. If you place too much burden on yourself in the process of learning without chance for breaks, you might overuse your brain which in turn affects your academic performance and prevents you from understanding or recalling what you have learned in your previous classes. This is why schools include short and long breaks in their timetable. You can use such breaks for simple exercises or relaxation.

10. Avoid Examination malpractice mindset:

While learning, avoid any vain hope of examination malpractice. You can cheat in the exam successfully without being caught, and possibly have good examination results, but that is not what good academic performance is all about.

Examination malpractice does not make you perform better in school or your learning process, it only kills your morale. When you have the mindset that you can always cheat, you will be dissuaded from studying hard thereby killing your commitment to what you are up to.

Malpractice also kills self-confidence on the topic and negatively destroys your probability of learning properly. That's why you have to avoid malpractice as this will improve your thought process and boost your understanding of the course.

11. Apply visual aids in your learning:

Increase memory retention by adding visual aids such as flowcharts, diagrams, and mind maps. Visuals simplify complex information and facilitate connections between concepts, making it easier to retain information about a learning topic by linking it to concepts you already know. 

Using images, videos, and infographics to make learning new information much easier is the best summary for your reading and longer study sessions. You can turn formulae into beautiful drawings and complex data into charts or graphical representations that simplifies your learning and boost your understanding of the subject.

12. Employ simple learning tricks like mnemonic devices:

Mnemonic devices are simple learning exercises or game-like practices that enhance recall and easy understanding during the learning process. They may come in the form of rhymes, word combinations, acronyms, charts, and other fun or game-like presentations that improve brain performance. For example, "All Cows Eat Grass" is a form of mnemonic popularly used to remember the notes of the bass clef on a musical staff.

Formulating mnemonic devices by yourself can help you remember formulae, lists, and other key elements of the topic thereby boosting your performance on the subject or academic course. To learn more about mnemonic devices, remember our earlier post on simple activities that boost brain performance.

13. Become and have a study mate:

Collaborate with others, especially peers or classmates, and study together. This will allow you to share knowledge, and participate in discussions that can give you the ability to think critically about the topic.

You can share your experiences and understanding of the subject to help you learn easily. Explaining concepts to others and hearing different points of view strengthens and broadens your thinking and understanding of a topic.

14. Always put things in place:

Establish a structured order for course materials, notes, and even personal items that are unrelated to your learning material. Also create topic-specific folders or binders for your study materials. You can use color-coded tabs and sticky notes, and keep your digital files organized on the computer if they are in digital forms.

Ensure you keep things like your clothes and your shoes where you can easily access whenever you need them. This saves time and reduces the stress of sourcing the necessary supplies. It also avoids unnecessary delays that can block your study time. Studying late because being late due to a lack of resources can cause stress or anxiety that prevents you from studying and staying focused in class.

15. Sleep on time:

Most students think that staying up all night to study is the way to go in learning, but this can be dangerous. Remember that sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation and cognitive functioning. So, make it a point to get enough sleep each night. Avoid crashing through the night due to excessive pressure. Instead, prioritize a consistent sleep schedule which is good for optimal learning. That doesn’t mean you have to oversleep.

Some experts recommend at least 6 hours of sleep a day and more, but it’s best to listen to your body and take action to avoid sudden breaking down in the course of trying to improve your academic performance. You can do anything if your health is not sound. So, you need enough rests to be able to perform well academically.

16. Work on your mental physical and mental health:

Your health is very important for your learning to flow properly. This include both your physical and mental health. Besides health being a vital thing in life, mental health is a very important topic for everyone including students. Ensure that nothing bothers you while you are up for learning. Look for ways to cope with mental health related challenges like depression and anxiety, or related disorders. You can look out for signs of mental ill-health. When your mental health is not sound, it can be impossible to grasp what you are being taught easily.

In conclusion, learning is a process and as you continue to learn, you discover new methods to do it better. Each of the hacks in this article is aim to guide you through the process of that improvement. However, the best way to learn is to set your mind focused on what you are about to learning and commit to it through hard work, dedication and diligence. If you don't give time to learning, you may not be able to get to the level of optimal understanding that can make you standout.